Jan Beerstraten may have been a pupil of Claes Claesz. Wou (1592-1665), a marine painter in the Flemish tradition, who seems to have influenced his paintings of sea battles. His southern ports and seashores were influenced by the works of such Dutch Italianate painters as Nicolaes Berchem and Jan Baptist Weenix. Unlike his townscapes, Beerstraten's ports were totally imaginary, sometimes with a well-known northern European building incorporated on the seashore. It is not known whether he went to Italy, although in his paintings the southern light seems to be accurately conveyed, as in the Imaginary View of a Port with the Façade of Santa Maria Maggiore of Rome (formerly known as the 'Port of Genoa', 1662, Paris, Louvre). For his Ital...